News

The Next Drought

By John Maday

Reprinted with permission from Drovers/CattleNetwork
October 17, 2011

Drought happens. It’s a fact of nature. This year, however, seems downright supernatural to producers in the southern Plains region who endured more than 12 months without significant precipitation and more than three months of daily temperatures topping 100 degrees.

Drought of that scale harms every ranch, every pasture and every rancher, no matter how well they planned and prepared. However, hidden among the dust and parched fields lie lessons for how, with some planning, preparation and timely decision making, ranchers can shrug off “typical” drought years and at least survive a cataclysmic event.

Like virtually every farm or ranch in the region, the Bradley 3 Ranch, a well-known Angus seedstock operation near Memphis, in west Texas, has suffered the profound effects of this year’s drought.

“These are historic times,” says Mary Lou Bradley-Henderson. “This drought is worse than the one in the 1950s and worse than the one in the 1930s.” But while the Bradleys have not escaped the drought’s impact, planning, preparation and some creative response have helped them at least keep their cow herd intact.

For several years, the Bradleys have worked to improve forage production and utilization across the ranch, fighting brush and weeds and using rotational-grazing practices to promote year-round availability of grass. When things began to dry up early in the summer of 2010, Bradley-Henderson says, the family planned a strategy for the battle ahead. “We had grown a lot of grass,” she says, which would allow extended grazing on dormant pastures. But, she adds, no one knew how long the drought would last.

When the region’s usual August and September rains failed to occur, the family knew they were facing a significant drought situation. But, of course, it got worse, with an unusually cold fall and winter followed by a spring and summer with virtually no significant rainfall. Temperatures in west Texas exceeded 100 degrees for 97 consecutive days, topping out at 116. Pastures turned to bare dirt and wells ran dry.

Bradley-Henderson says the family’s master plan for drought included stockpiling forage and setting money aside to preserve the high-value registered herd through potential emergencies. Normally, the stockpiled grass would be enough to carry the herd through a season of drought, but as this event worsened through a second growing season, the family sought out alternative forage opportunities.

Bradley-Henderson says early this year, as the severity of the drought became apparent, she began purchasing and hauling hay and calling hunt clubs and landowners, hoping to lease grazing rights on hunting properties.  Through that process, she located and leased irrigated pastures on a nearby ranch and purchased a neighboring property that included CRP acreage available for grazing. Access to these additional pastures, she says, helped the family keep the cow herd intact.

Genetics also play a role, and the Bradleys’ long-term focus on moderate-sized, easy-fleshing cattle has benefited the herd during drought. The Bradley 3 cows, she says, have generally held up well and maintained condition on sparse forage, as the family continues to select for adaptable bulls that convert well on grass.

Planning can help minimize drought impacts, but during the driest year in Texas history, says Texas Extension state forage specialist Larry Redmon, PhD, producers have been left with one choice — destock. At some point, he says, the emphasis needs to shift from cattle to preserving resources that will allow eventual recovery of forages and pastures. Forage stubble in dry fields prevents wind and water erosion while helping capture moisture when the rains finally arrive. In bare-ground pastures, on the other hand, topsoil will blow away or wash away in the first storm, along with critical nutrients and soil microorganisms. “We can lose 1,000 years of topsoil from bare pastures in one high-intensity rainfall,” he says.

Depending on conditions and feed supplies, ranchers in the region might have been able to preserve some pasture stubble with a partial destocking, but many have needed to remove all their cattle, either selling them off or moving them to rented land in other states. Those who made destocking decisions early, he says, have fared the best, and some still have grass. Others, Redmon fears, waited too long, leaving bare ground that will struggle to return to productivity.

Even where stubble remains, he warns ranchers against trying to restock too soon. Long-range forecasts and the return of La Niña conditions in the Pacific suggest an end to this drought could be months or even years away. And if, as hoped, the rains return next spring, it still will take at least one entire growing season for pastures to recover, Redmon says.

Before reaching the emergency destocking point, Redmon offers the following drought-preparation tips:

• Have a written plan. “Keep good records of your stocking rates and your operation overall. It doesn’t do any good to have a plan if you don’t have records.”
• Adjust stocking rates based on cattle needs. Redmon points out that today’s cattle, which might weigh 1,200 pounds, have different requirements from those of your grandfather’s 800-pound cows.
• Test your soils. “Without a soil test, you over-apply expensive nutrients, under-apply needed nutrients, or never apply the correct level of nutrients.”
• Manage weeds. Redmon advises to apply herbicide at the right times of the year to provide better weed management. This can also save money compared to expensive pasture mowing.
• Consider insect control. Even a moderate infestation of 10 grasshoppers per square meter can consume up to 60 percent of the available forage.
• Store hay in a barn. Hay costs about $120 a ton to produce. If you lose 4 inches on the outside, you’ve lost 21 percent of a 6-foot bale.
• Test hay for nutrient content, and test all warm-season annual grass hays for possible nitrate toxicity.

Finally, Bradley-Henderson says, a vital step in surviving a severe drought is to prevent it from “beating you emotionally.” She stresses the importance of moving forward, making decisions and taking steps to survive. Friends and neighbors serve as a critical support group, she adds, saying ranchers in her area have been getting together to discuss their situations, share advice and cooperatively seek out sources of water and forage. “We just try to make the best decisions from day to day,” she says. “We question our decisions. Do we have enough grass? Have we purchased enough hay? We’re probably making some mistakes, but we keep moving forward.”